How did teams at IEM Chicago rank each other?

When we set out to make the groups at IEM Chicago 2018, we decided to try a crowdsourced seeding system where all teams ranked each other. The final results allowed us to create a very balanced bracket and also left behind some interesting insights into how teams in the scene perceive each other.

How did the seeding system work?

We asked each team to submit their 1-15 rating of all other teams in attendance. We then added up all the teams’ scores based on the 16 submissions. As an additional measure to protect the seeding from manipulation we removed two votes for each team that were the farthest away from the final average. This protected the seeding from a team deliberately ranking someone high or low in order to potentially dodge them.

The takeaways

-While Natus Vincere and Team Liquid were ranked #2 and #3 overall respectively, Astralis ranked FaZe Clan as their #1 rival in Chicago.

-If we go by the overall ranking, teams are expecting the top 4 to be Astralis, Natus Vincere, Team Liquid and FaZe Clan. The only other teams who broke into the top 4 in some of the personal rankings were MIBR, mousesports and North (who were actually ranked #2 by Natus Vincere)

-The six teams in attendance that also play in the NA ESL Pro League ranked Team Liquid as the top contender from the North American pool, followed by MIBR.

-The team with the smallest difference between their personal rank and the overall rank was BIG Clan, followed by Team LDLC.

-The team with the biggest difference between their personal rank and the overall rank was North, followed closely by MVP PK.

-Although Team LDLC were the last team to qualify and would’ve been last based on World Ranking alone, nobody ranked the French squad in last place, resulting in an overall rank of 13.